Mapping the Customer Journey

Imagine you're planning a trip to a new city. You probably wouldn't just jump on a plane and wing it - you'd do some research first, right? The same principle applies when you are trying to understand your customers. You shouldn't try to engage with customers without understanding their journey.

Customer journey mapping is all about figuring out what your customers are thinking and feeling at each step of their journey with your business. It's a way of putting yourself in your customer's shoes and seeing things from their perspective.

Journey Mapping Visual

Figure 1. What is it?

A complex pathway

Figure 2. An Example

Touchpoints and journey maps

Figure 3. Touchpoints on the Customer Journey

Digital and Analogue Touchpoints

Figure 4. Digital and Analogue Touchpoints

Journey Mapping Tool

Figure 5. Journey Mapping

Touchpoint Design

Figure 6. Touchpoint Design

Journey Mapping Template

Figure 7. Creating your own Customer Journey Map

Customer Journey Mapping

 
Image Courtesy of UXMatters

Image Courtesy of UXMatters

Journey mapping is a structured visualisation of a service's user experience. Although there is no standard agreed upon format, the journey map typically illustrates service touchpoints, and customer emotions on the journey from pre-service to post-service delivery. Service delivery is typically multi-channelled and time-based and leverages multiple information sources. By providing service designers with a longitudinal view of the customer experience, service designers can identify problems and opportunities for service innovation. It also allows the service designer to reflect on individual touchpoints and to analyse discrete stages of the customer journey.

As all service users will differ, customer journey maps are typically created for multiple user types, or personas. This allows the service designer to compare several customer experiences.  The links below provide  excellent examples of how customer journey maps are being used by organisations to improve user experience and service delivery. 

Further Reading: 

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/09/the-value-of-customer-journey-maps-a-ux-designers-personal-journey.php

http://www.jungleminds.com/our-publications/article/customer-journey-mapping-customer-experience-as-inspiration-for-strategy-and-design/

http://desonance.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/customer-experience-mapping/

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/11/using_customer_journey_maps_to.html

http://sixrevisions.com/user-experience-ux/customer-journey-maps/

http://service-design-network.org/node/1707/